Dial up telephone conferencing system controlled by an online computer network

ABSTRACT

In a telephone conferencing system, a digital communication network such as the Internet is used to establish and control the telephone connections between multiple conferees with the telephone network being the means of exchanging verbal information. Each conferee may have a computer connected to the digital network, and each has an independent telephone instrument connected to the public switched telephone network. An in-charge conferee utilizes his computer containing appropriate software to initiate the conference and to control the participation of the conferees. The in-charge conferee sends digital control signals to a switch interface controlling a telephone switch as a gateway to the telephone network using SS7 control signals. These SS7 control signals include the commands by which the conferee telephones are rung up, brought on line, or dropped from the conference. The switch provides telephone status information back over the digital network, and the in-charge conferee, as well as other conferees provided with appropriate software, display this status information on their PC monitors.

RELATED APPLICATIONS:

[0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No.09/819,079, filed Apr. 30, 2001, which was a continuation of applicationSer. No. 09/587,080, filed Jun. 3, 2000, and now U.S. Pat. No.6,266,328, which was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.09/212,786, filed Dec. 16, 1998, and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,780, whichwas a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/918,564, filedAug. 22, 1997, which claimed the benefit of priority pursuant to 35U.S.C. §119 of Provisional Application No. 60/024,592, filed Aug. 26,1996.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] This invention relates to telephone conferencing, and inparticular to dial up telephone conferencing utilizing computer control.

[0004] 2. Description Relative to the Prior Art

[0005] In the art, it is known that telephone conferences may beimplemented through “conferencing centers” provided as a service bylocal and long distance telephone companies. A list of telephone numbersof the conferees and the date and time at which the conference is tobegin is supplied to a conference center operator who performs thedialing operations to bring the conferees simultaneously on line toinitiate the conference. This technique is limited by the necessity ofsetting up a relatively inflexible forum in which all participants mustbe designated in advance, and the inclusion and reliance upon outsidetelephone company personnel to implement the conference.

[0006] A more recent form of conferencing utilizes digital networks suchas the Internet that are publicly accessible by individual computers(typically PCs) via Internet Relay Chat (IRC) hosts. The conferees comeon line and are interconnected by means of the host, and may utilizesoftware which allows fully duplexed communication between the PCs.Typically, the conference is conducted with the exchanged informationvisually appearing on the individual PC display screens. In moresophisticated applications allowing audio communication between theconferees, additional hardware is required at each PC site. A microphoneand analog to digital converter provide digitized audio input to a PC bymeans of appropriate software, such as commercially available VocalTecsoftware, and the audio output is derived from the digital informationtransmitted over the Internet by use of a digital to analog converterfeeding a speaker. Encryption software may be employed to “scramble” thedigital information transmitted via the network, but all potentialconferees must be provided with this software, and must be alerted tothe fact that it is being used. Hence, a conference of multipleconferees requires additional hardware and software at each PC site inorder to implement a conference by means of the Internet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] The invention will be described with respect to the drawings,which:

[0008]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system of the invention,

[0009]FIG. 2 is a drawing of a computer display according to theinvention,

[0010]FIG. 3 is a drawing of a second embodiment of a computer displayaccording to the invention, and

[0011]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the invention showing the informationof FIG. 1 in greater detail.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] Referring to FIG. 1, a conferee station 10 consists of a PCcomputer 18 and a telephone 20. Conferee stations 12, 14,correspondingly have PC computers 22, 26 and telephones 24, 28. Otherconferee stations, i.e. 16 may still be connected into the conferencenetwork without the requirement of a computer; the conferee station 16comprising only the telephone 17. All the PCs are connected to theInternet network 30 using standard Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connect software. The telephones 20,24, 28, 17 are tied into the telephone network 32 in a conventionalmanner. It will be noted that the telephones 20, 24, 28, 17 areindependent of the Internet network 30. A switch interface 33controlling a telephone switch 34 is also connected so as to receivecontrol signals via the Internet 30 and to transmit them to thetelephone network 32, as will be described below.

[0013] Anyone of the conferee stations 10, 12, 14, possessing a PC, maybe designated as Conference Meister. For convenience of explanation, itis assumed that conferee station 14 is designated as Conference Meister.To implement this designation, PC 26 of conferee station 14 is providedwith additional software which allows PC 26 to communicate with theswitch interface 33 both to control the telephone switch 34 and toreceive status information from the telephone switch 34, via theInternet 30.

[0014] The Conference Meister station 14 and the switch interface 33communicate over the TCP/IP transport layer of the Internet 30 using theInternet's User Datagram Protocol (UDP) with checksum. A commonfixed-length interprocess message called the Conference Protocol DataUnit (CDPU), using the software format further described below in TableI, is exchanged between the Conference Meister 14 and the switchinterface 33, in the data field of a UDP-Datagram. The switch interface33 converts the CDPU into Signalling System 7 (SS7) commands which acton the switch 34, and attendantly, on the telephone network 32 tocontrol the conferees telephones 20, 24, 28, 17. SS7 is aninternationally recognized telephony standard of 255 commands forcontrolling telephone calls via switch 34 using standard lookup tableprocedures. The switch interface 33 interacting with the switch 34 maybe implemented incorporating a standard micro-computer such as aMotorola 68705P5 performing the table lookup translation of SS7 commandsinto CPDU commands stored in its ROM memory. It will be noted that theswitch interface 33 is bi-directional, and telephone connection statusinformation as established by the switch 34, i.e. ringing, off-hook,on-hook busy, for all participants is transmitted back via the Internetto the Conference Meister for icon display on his PC.

[0015] All fields in the CPDU are ASCII character fields. The CPDUconsists of 32 bytes of data as follows:

[0016] Session ID——4 bytes

[0017] Conference ID——2 bytes

[0018] Command/Response Code——2 bytes

[0019] Data——24 bytes

[0020] The Session ID and Conference ID fields contain administrative“housekeeping” information. The Command/Response Code field indicatesthe message type and the message meaning. Parameters of the Data Fieldare fixed length subfields and depend upon the message type. Detaileddescriptions of the Commnand/Response Code field are shown below inTable I. TABLE I Code Command Response Meaning HE ✓ HELLO. ConferenceMeister's Request for Session-Id LO ✓ LOGON. The Switch Interface'sresponse to a Conference Meister's HE (Hello) assigning him histemporary Session-Id, and signaling him to logon. LO ✓ LOGON. AConference Meister's logon. information giving user id, password, andaccount number in the data field. RS ✓ RESOURCES. The Switch Interface'sacceptance of a Conference Meister's LO (Logon) EC ✓ ESTABLISHCONNECTION. A Conference Meister's request that a specified telephonenumber be connected to a conference. SU ✓ SUCCESS. The SwitchInterface's response to an EC (Establish Connection) request. Ifsuccessfully completed. It returns a connection-id used to refer to thismembers conference connection. FA ✓ FAIL. The reply sent when LO (Logon)or EC (Establish Connection) fails. Failure details are carried in thedata field. DC ✓ DISCONNECT. A request from the Conference Meister todisconnect a conference members connection, or to terminate a conference(disconnect all member connections on the conference). DC ✓ DISCONNECT.An unsolicited response from the Switch Interface notifying theConference Meister that a conference members connection has beendisconnected. ST ✓ STATUS. This command is the Conference Meister'smeans of maintaining and reconstructing its conference information inthe face of dropped connections and unreliable datagram transmissions.ST ✓ STATUS. The Switch Interface's reply to a Conference Meister'sstatus request. ER ✓ ERROR. This is the reply used to signal invalidmessage parameters, such as Session-Id. IH ✓ ✓ I'M HERE. This messageconfirms that Conference Meister and Switch Interface are still incontact during intervals when there is no command/response trafficbetween them.

[0021] In the above description of the invention, the Conference Meister14 initiates the conference. By providing CDPU software to the otherconferees, the invention allows any other one of the conferee stations,i.e. 10, 12, to serve as a Conference Meister.

[0022] The functional interrelation of the elements of the systemillustrated in FIG. 1 may be further understood by reference to FIG. 4.In FIG. 4, the abbreviations, used industry-wide, have the followingmeanings: SSP=Central Office (i.e. Service Signalling Point),SCP=Service Control Point, (it is an alternate SS7 entry point), andSTP=Signal Transfer Point. (In the drawings, different but relatedelements are identified with the same reference characters, albeit thatcorresponding elements in the various drawings are distinguished byprimes.) The components of the telephone system are expanded in the box14′ showing one or more interconnected telephone central offices, e.g.100, 104 that also contain control elements of the SS7 system, e.g. 110,112. As one example of the interaction between the telephone system andthe control disclosed in the present invention, a call placed bytelephone 17′ using conventional dialing enters the system throughtelephone central office 116. The call is internally routed, ifnecessary, by the SS7 control system over the telephone network to atelephone central office 104 which is connected to a telephonesystem/Internet interface, 33′ and 34′, that sends SS7 signals to anInternet computer 118 that a telephone call is in process and destinedto the Internet 30′. (The dashed lines of FIG. 4 denote digital controlfunctions; while the heavy black lines denote transmitted audiotelephone signals as will be described below.) As is known in the art,within the Internet system are digital computers, e.g. 118, acting asrouters, servers and capable of performing other digital manipulations.Hence, via the interface/switch control path 33′,34′ the telephonecentral office advises the Internet computer 118, via the SS7/Internetcontrol interface, that an audio signal is to be passed to the Internet.The telephone central office 104 transmits 120 the voice signals 122originating at telephone 17′, to the Internet computer 118 where it isdigitized, if necessary, and packetized for transmission on theInternet. This switching and inter-node connecting of this entireprocess has taken place between the telephone system 14′ and theInternet 30′ under control of SS7 signals. Internet computer 118converts or maps the SS7 command signals to TCP control signals thatroute and process the packets through the Internet, as disclosed above.The message 124 transits the Internet 30′ to its destination, say, PC 28of FIG. 1 where software decodes the audio message 124, rings thetelephone 28, and provides an analog audio signal for telephone 28,corresponding to audio signal 122, generated at telephone instrument17′. In a second embodiment of the invention, the system of FIG. 1 maybe further configured to provide an inherent call-back capability.Though it uses the same conferencing software described above, call-backcan be between just two parties. Essentially each PC station is set upso it can serve as a “conference meister”; no other special software orhardware need be installed on a station's PC. Only the initiatingstation requires a PC or other access to the Internet. A suitablyprogrammed touchtone phone can be used to access the Internet withoutthe use of a computer such as the PC. The two party call-back featuresets up the call via the Internet with the conversation taking place onthe normal telephone system in a manner substantially the same as thatdescribed above for conferencing.

[0023] Referring to FIG. 2, a participating PC call-back station shows adisplay chart 40 on its monitor. The display chart 40 contains thestation identification 42 (e.g. Richard) and a contact list 39, and thePC station's call-back telephone number 44. The contacts are shown withtheir complete dial-up telephone numbers, e.g. 46, 48, and by clickingon one or more or more of the displayed contacts, calls are dialed tothe selected parties via the Internet and the switch 34 of FIG. 1, aspreviously described for conference calling. It will be appreciated thatsingle parties can be selected to allow two person telephoneconversation utilizing the convenience of simplified “point and click”dialing via the stored telephone numbers shown on the PC monitor screen.In the two party call-back connection system described above, it is notnecessary to have two telephone lines at a PC station, i.e. one forconnection to the Internet and one for carrying the telephonicconversation. With a single telephone line, the system software may beset to instantly disconnect the Internet connection after the calledparty's number is transmitted by the PC to the switch 34, and to ringthe call initiator's telephone simultaneously. In this manner, thecalling party and the called party are connected by means of a singletelephone line in seconds.

[0024] Anonymity of the caller is preserved by the invention even whenthe calling party has automatic numbering identification (ANI) or“Caller ID”. Since the system makes all its connections to the calledparty via the call-back technique from the remote switch 34 undercontrol of the “conference meister” software, the only records of allthe connected telephone numbers are recorded at the switch 34, includingthe number of the calling party. This occurs because the caller or“conference meister” is also one of the call-back numbers. Eachconnection is shown as a separate call on the inter-office telephonecontrol (SS7) software originating from the switch 34, not from acalling party's telephone. The switch 34 can have an anonymous telephonenumber assigned as the originating number. Alternately, the callingparty can designate some other listed number for ANI sending or CallerID purposes which would key the called party as to who is calling.

[0025] With the anonymous option, no traceable record of a call isavailable locally. This minimizes industrial espionage at hotels,customer offices, and even private homes where merely the fact thatcertain parties made a call could be valuable information. The properlegal authorities can always get the full records from the centralswitch 34 if need be to document who initiated the call, and whichtelephones were called.

[0026] In a third embodiment, the call-back system can be expanded toinclude an advertising feature. Referring to FIG. 3, a display 40′ isexpanded to include an advertising block 50. Under this embodiment, inorder to place a call via the call-back system or activate a conference,the program requires clicking on the advertising block 50 by the callerto create a record that the advertisement was seen by the caller.Various subroutines can then be activated such as requiring additionalperiodic clicks on the advertisement to keep the call connected, orlinking the caller to a web page of the advertiser providing additionalinformation as to the users of the system.

[0027] It will be noted that the displays 40, 40′ are to be implementedin various colors, and that the selection by clicking on any portion ofthe display will be highlighted in a manner known in the computer art.

[0028] The invention has been described in detail with particularreference to preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understoodthat variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit andscope of the invention. For example, other data networks, such as aprivate intranet rather than the Internet, may be used for digital datacommunication among the conferee PCs, as well as other telephonesignalling.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for communication among a plurality of conferee stations, said system connectible to the Internet network, said conferee stations including communication apparatus having dial up capability, said system further comprising: a) a dial up communication network providing Common Channel Signalling SS7 compatible telephonic communication interconnections among said conferee stations, b) a digital computer apparatus for receiving and transmitting digital signals over said Internet network, and c) a SS7 compatible digitally controlled switch module comprising a switch interface and a switch capable of receipt of telephonic command signals and capable of transmitting telephonic reply control signals, said switch module having an input and an output, said module connected to said Internet network for receiving and transmitting said digital signals over said Internet network, said switch output connected to said dial up communication network wherein said output of said switch is responsive to digital signals from said digital computer apparatus applied to said switch module input for effecting communication among said stations.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein said digital computer apparatus is a PC compatible computer.
 3. The system of claim 1 further including commands and responses for interchanging information between said digital computer apparatus and said switch module whereby said digital computer apparatus displays ringing, off hook, on hook busy and dropped connection status of said conferee stations.
 4. The system of claim 3 further comprising signals from said digital computer apparatus to provide instructions to said switch module wherein the parameters defining participation of said conferees is modified.
 5. A communication system comprising: a communication SS7 compatible telephone network comprising a first plurality of communication units having assigned addressable designations, said communication units activated by dial up of said assigned addressable designations, a SS7 switching module for effecting said dial up wherein selected ones of said communication units are mutually interconnected under control of said switching module, said switching module responsive to digital signals to effect said dial up, a Internet digital channel for transmission and reception of said digital signals to and from said switching module, a digital computer, said digital computer located proximate to one of said communication units wherein said digital computer includes a stored program that generates said digital signals, whereby computer supervisory control of the interconnection of said communication units is provided, a display unit connected to said digital computer, including a tabular array comprising said assigned addressable designations exhibited on said display units, and a selector unit controlled by said digital computer for selecting at least one of said assigned addressable designations from said tabular array to provide at least one selected addressable designation, wherein transmission of said digital signal onto said Internet channel by said digital computer is effected, and further wherein said digital signal activates said switching module to dial up said at least one of said communication units having said at least one selected addressable designation whereby signal connection between said communication units is established.
 6. The system of claim 5 wherein said digital computer further comprises a computer program connecting said Internet channel and said communication network, whereby said digital signals may be transmitted to said Internet channel via said communication network.
 7. The system of claim 6 wherein said digital computers are adapted to disconnect said digital computers from said communication network after said digital signals are transmitted to said Internet channel.
 8. The system of claim 5 wherein said digital computers are PC compatible computers.
 9. The system of claim 5 wherein said display units are cathode ray tube display units.
 10. The system of claim 5 wherein said display units are LCD display units.
 11. The system of claim 5 wherein said each of said display units further displays an icon, said icon under control of said digital computers wherein activation of said icon by said computers enables operation of said selector unit.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein said icon is configured in the form of an informational message.
 13. The system of claim 12 wherein said message is an advertisement.
 14. The system of claim 5 further comprising a recording unit for recording said addressable designations dialed up by said switching unit.
 15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a blocking unit wherein said addressable designations recorded in said recording unit cannot be identified by standard telephone caller identification apparatus.
 16. A method for establishing telephonic connections among a plurality of telephone devices, said telephone devices having dial up capability and being components of a SS7 compatible dial up telephone network, said method comprising the steps of: a) connecting a digital computer to the Internet network, said digital computer having a display unit located proximate to one of said telephone devices, said digital computer containing a stored program whereby computer supervisory control of said telephone devices is provided, b) inputting digital information from said digital computer via said Internet network to a remotely disposed SS7 switch module capable of receiving and transmitting digital information, said SS7 switch module further adapted to dial up said at least one of said telephone devices in response to said digital information, c) displaying a tabulated group of assigned telephone addresses on said display unit, d) selecting by said computer at least one of said assigned telephone addresses, to provide at least one selected telephone address, and e) transmitting said at least one selected telephone address via said Internet network to said SS7 switch module whereby the telephone device having said at least one selected telephone address is activated by said switch.
 17. The method of claim 16 including the step of displaying an icon under control of said digital computer on said display unit.
 18. The method of claim 17 including the step of enabling said icon to activate said digital computer for selecting at least one of said assigned telephone addresses.
 19. The method of claim 17 including the step of displaying said icon in the form of an informational message.
 20. The method of claim 17 including displaying said icon in the form of an advertisement.
 21. The method of claim 16 including the step of recording each of said assigned telephone addresses when activating said switch.
 22. The method of claim 16 including the step of blocking said assigned telephone addresses from determination by telephonic number identification devices. 